1. Introduction to Multi-Criteria Assessment

Multi-Criteria Assessment (MCA) constitutes both a framework for structuring decision problems, as well as a set of methods to generate preferences among alternatives. MCA has the potential to take into account conflicting, multidimensional, incommensurable and uncertain effects of decisions explicitly enabling it to focus more on the ―decision process itself, and not on a final result (Munda, 2008).

According to P. Antunes and M. O'Connor, a multi-criteria problem is characterized by the presence of a finite set of alternatives (for instance alternative corridors for a railway or different design options for a regional transportation system) and the existence of different (and often conflicting) evaluation criteria under which we evaluate each alternative (e.g. impacts on land use, travel costs, people affected). Those criteria often relate to different perspectives, and languages of valuation. The subjective aspect of MCA should thus be treated with caution.

 
There are a variety of MCA methods and tools, depending if the accent is put on formal analysis or deliberative process, for example.
 
  • Multi-Criteria Analysis, with its own diverse formalized methods
  • Social Multi-Criteria Analysis
  • Deliberative approaches (close to social MCA)
 
Specific tools were developed by research centres, such as ICTA (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona) and REEDS (Université de Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines), which are appropriate to one or the other of those approaches.